Antibiotic Amnesty to mark World Antibiotic Awareness Week

by Juliet Allibone

12 November 2015

As part of World Antibiotic Awareness Week, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will hold a joint antibiotics amnesty.

Monday 16th November- Sunday 22 November marks the first ever World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) the event, which is designed to raise awareness of what we should all be doing to protect this miracle drug, is a mark of how important the threat of antibiotic resistance has become.

To mark the occasion, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will be holding a joint Antibiotic Amnesty. Staff, students and patients will all be invited to dispose of unused antibiotics and old out of date ones- the use of which drives antibiotic resistance.

College staff and students on the South Kensington and Hammersmith Campuses can bring along unwanted antibiotics to a stand in the Sherfield Building Level 2 foyer and Commonwealth Building Level 1 foyer between 12:30-13:30 from Monday 16 to Friday 20 November. Members of the College’s NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance will organise safe disposal, provide information about what you can do about antimicrobial resistance and enter you into a prize draw for a chance to win an ipad.

Staff and students on other medical campuses can dispose of their antibitoics at the Lloyds Pharmacies in the main outpatient building St Marys Hospital and the ground floor main hospital building Charing Cross.

Those without antibiotics to hand in can also particpate by pledging to become an antibiotic guardian at https://antibioticguardian.com and sending their certificate to head.ops@imperial.ac.uk for entry into the draw.

The threat of antibiotic resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), especially resistance to antibiotics, is a growing global problem. Antimicrobial-resistant infections currently claim at least 50,000 lives each year across Europe and the US alone, with many hundreds of thousands more dying in other areas of the world. It is estimated that resistance could result in an extra 10 million people across the world every year by 2050

Antibiotics have been the cornerstone of much of modern medicine, allowing routine surgery to be conducted without the risk of infection and the development of new treatments such as chemotherapy and transplantation which in weakening the immune system rely on antibiotics to stop the patients succumbing to illness. Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat, which if it isn’t addressed, could lead to a scenario where any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics. Routine operations like hip replacements, organ transplants or caesarean section could be deadly because of the risk of infection.

Any use of antimicrobials, however appropriate and conservative, contributes to the development of resistance, but widespread unnecessary and excessive use makes it worse. Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials including pressuring GPs to write prescriptions where they are not necessary, stockpiling old antibiotics for later use or buying them abroad over the counter all contribute to resistance.

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